TRIONYCHOIDEA 



409 



uufrequently spring upward at the same time and make a loud 

 hiss. In the month of May the females seek sandy places along 

 the banks of the waters they inhabit to lay their eggs, generally 

 about sixty in number; and it is remarkable that, though their 

 motions are slow and difiicult on dry land, yet at this season 

 they sometimes mount hillocks several feet high. The flesh 



Fig. 92. — 'Frionyx ferox (American Soft-shellecT Turtle). x y\. 



affords the most delicate food, surpassing that even of the 

 Green Turtle. The geographical distribution is interesting. It 

 inhabits the Savannah as well as all those rivers that empty 

 into the northern borders of the Gulf of Mexico ; it ascends up 

 the broad Mississippi, and is found in all its- tributaries, even 

 to the very foot of the Eocky Mountains ; it abounds in the 

 chain of great northern lakes both above and below the Yalls of 

 Niagara, and is common in the Mohawk, a tributary of the 



